Jubagel's 94 SW2

[Jubagel]

At the end of last fall, while driving back from Sonic on the e-way, I blew up my car. I'm still not sure what exactly went wrong, but I ended up destroying two of the pistons and the head.






So fast forward to about 2 weeks ago. Weather is finally starting to get nice so I am in the process of cleaning all the parts that I will be reusing and working out what parts I will need to finish this rebuild. Basically no rush, I have my wagon to DD, so I want to build this motor the right way for ultimate reliability.

I also have plans to refinish the front end and rear end in the future. I'm thinking of this as my plan of action:

1. Finish collecting parts and build motor.
2. Remove front sub-frame, have powdercoated, install new suspension (KYB Gr-2s on Progress Springs + Energy suspension poly bushings)
3. Mate powertrain to the sub-frame and reinstall in the car
4. Tear apart the rear end, install new suspension, and install rear disc brakes.

Now for the pictures



As you can see, its extremely grimy and nasty. My goal is to have this thing looking closest to brand new as possible.





And here's the block up on the stand





Here are all the goodies





And I just thought this picture looked cool



Thats about it for this post, I will update later on when i make more progress.

Comments and suggestions are GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[punkboySL2]

Re: Jubagel's 98 SC2

what's your goal with the engine? just a stock rebuild?

[Jubagel]

Re: Jubagel's 98 SC2

yes for now just a stock rebuild. I am torn between rebuilding the 98 coupe or swapping parts to the 94 wagon. the front subframe on the wagon is a mess, but the coupe's is in awesome condition. also, the wagon is a automatic and my coupe's MP3 has been dangling from a nylon strap for about 5 months now.

so i was thinking of pulling the subframe out of the 98, getting it sandblasted and powdercoated, then building up the motor on that and just swapping the subframes out once the rebuilt motor is ready to go in. then, i will have a manual wagon with a fresh motor and subframe.

the only problem is i haven't researched or looked into the swap much at all and i'm not sure whether or not subframes will swap between 2nd and 1st gen.

[Jubagel]

Re: Jubagel's 98 SC2

okay so update time....

on easter, i got the KYBs and progress drop springs installed in the car. took only about 2 hours total (thank god for impact tools). the first one took a bit longer due to seized up knuckle to strut bolts, but we flew through the second front and the rears took oh i dont know maybe 10 minutes tops.

got the car aligned and all cleaned up and heres the finished product (this is my background PC pic)


sorry about that huge picture.

so with the struts and springs out of the way, my next project is rebuilding the brake system. i am pulling front calipers from my 98 coupe, picking up some rear calipers from another member on here, and will be sandblasting, painting, and installing them within the next few weeks hopefully.

also, just found a pretty sweet deal on some rota sub-zeros that i am going to be picking up tomorrow. two have slight curb rash and two have half tread, but dummy didn't have his car aligned so two of the tires wore improperly. not all is bad though, they are falken ze912s so i cant be sad. going to be respraying these wheels either a matte black or gunmetal. bronze crossed my mind but not sure how it'd look with the saturn gold. anyway here is a picture of the wheels


other than that just been slowly making progess on little things like detailing the car and getting the engine bay the way i'd like it.

[bulldoguk]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

I think those wheels would look good in gunmetal. I'm a 1st gen fan and the 1st gen wagons are definitely the best looking wagon that Saturn made IMO. Looking good

[sleeperSL2]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

Looks good! keep it up

[Jubagel]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

I think those wheels would look good in gunmetal. I'm a 1st gen fan and the 1st gen wagons are definitely the best looking wagon that Saturn made IMO. Looking good

i was thinking the same thing. gunmetal wheels seem to look good on gold 1st gens. so i will be starting to refinish these when i get the time. i only like the first gen wagons though, i think the second gen when they switched the rear doors to a rounded edge made the thing look like a bubble. box-car FTW.

thanks for the compliments guys

[punkboySL2]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

those wheels should look sick

[leighv]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

Can you post a pic of the damage to the head?

[Jubagel]

Re: Jubagel's 94 SW2

yeah i'll try to remember to snap a picture next time i go over to my grandma's where the coupe is. probably will be going over there tomorrow

[Jubagel]

Wow, I can't believe its been 7 years since I updated this thread.





First I'll bring you all up to speed with my life. Since 2012 I've worked as a professional auto technician. Daily drove this car for years and put a ton of miles on it. Odometer quit at 250k, but estimated 300k on clock. Was sold to my buddy at one point since he was in a pinch and I had just purchased a 98 Jeep XJ which is now my daily.



He bought a new car and sold this back to me, so I figured it was time to do a proper project. Decided on going for boost since I've always wanted to boost this car.

So we tore the tired 300k mile engine out and tore it apart.

Thrust bearing was massively worn


Sent out to machine shop for cleaning and inspection. In the meantime we disassembled the trans to get the differential out so the pin could be welded.


As of today, machine work is done, just waiting on internals to ship and keeping myself busy with other issues. Had the intake bead blasted. The head got a valve job and new exhaust guides. Everything is clean and ready for forged internals. Heres a few quick snaps of the engine.





Well everything seemed to be going smooth until I really started digging in. I gutted the interior since it smelled like various sorts of cheese and found some pretty serious rust problems.






Most people would say scrap it. I can't let this car go, I've tried. I have no idea what it is about this thing but I can't walk away. Lol anyway this is where it sits now. All drivers side panels pulled off to access rust. Will be starting that project on my next day off. In the evenings until then, I need to strip everything from underneath the car (fuel tank, rear subframe, lines, exhaust)


Anyway, I will keep this thread updated with progress pics as I hope many can gain something from my rust repair project (assuming it doesn't kick my ass into submission). A lot of these cars are dying out due to rot like this and I want to see 1gens, especially wagons on the road for long as possible.

[toka100]

Really nice looking wagon.

But dam that rust is bad. Good luck rebuilding it. It Would Be great to see it saved. I was lucky enough to get mine before the rust was too bad. I just bedlined the entire floor pan and rubber coated the underside.

[Jubagel]

Really nice looking wagon.

But dam that rust is bad. Good luck rebuilding it. It Would Be great to see it saved. I was lucky enough to get mine before the rust was too bad. I just bedlined the entire floor pan and rubber coated the underside.

Yeah, I wish I hadn't ignored the rust all these years. Fortunately the door frames are still available NOS so should be a piece of cake for those. As for the floorboards, I'll make those custom most likely

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk